Problem with dog getting into car

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I have a 6 month old cocker who is generally obedient but the moment I get him to go in the car boot where his cage is he simply lies on the ground like a limp noodle and won't get up and eventually rolls under the damn car. He never used to do this its a fairly recent thing I understand he wants playing with but at the moment its bad people look at me like I beat my dog which I don't. He does it for all family members too. I have tried walking him to the car on a lead but same thing just lies down like a wet fish. Ideas?

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Let him get good and hungry and feed him in there. If you feed him once a day, do it after a walk in the cage in the back of the car. If you usually feed him more often, miss a meal and do it with a double portion at the next one.

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Sorry mate, but first of all I have to laugh my fill at the mental image you've given me

I'd start by keeping the pressure off and not trying to get him in only when you're going somewhere. If you're getting to the point where you're frustrated he'll really quickly pick up on that and you'll get the submissive behaviour he's showing. Making the car boot the best place in the world for him to be is the answer. Start by leaving the tailgate open when you're at home and encouraging him to jump in at his own pace. Feed him in there, make a bit of a fuss of him and make sure he knows it's a good place for him to be. He'll soon get the idea, especially if you place a bit of vet bed that has his scent all over it in there with him

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Cockers needs some encouragement, so get in the cage and entice him in Note to self; don't do this at the shoot or when any other family members or friends have access to a camera

Seriously, is it the car or the cage that is the problem?

Try taking the cage out of the car and see if he reacts the same.

If it's the cage, remove it from the car and - as others have suggested - feed him in there, make a general fuss of him, and familiarise him with the cage until such point that you can move it back into the car. Our cocker slept in the cage when it was in the house, so when it came to moving the cage to the car it was merely moving his "home turf".

If it's the car, change the car

Do you have another dog? If so, try him following another dog into the cage.

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he simply lies on the ground like a limp noodle and won't get up and eventually rolls under the damn car. ...people look at me like I beat my dog which I don't. .... just lies down like a wet fish. Ideas?

Yep, that's a cocker right enough. It's part of their life's work to make you look like a d**k.

I'm just back from dropping a carcass off at the dealers and as soon as I got home my two cockers were all over the back door of the truck. If they had opposable thumbs they'd have been inside in a flash. As said, make it interesting and safe for him. Food, bedding, deer bits? Pretty much anything that grabs his interest.

With the cage in the boot, do you have the back seat down so he can see out and there is some light? Before I got a truck my dog travelled in a cage in the car boot, but I always collapsed half the back seat and shoved the cage through, so she could see me and wasn't completely confined in a dark space.

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TBH, I found I could manage that perfectly well before I had cockers - the difference is that they do with some panache

For example, I was out duck flighting last night and, when the flight was over, my older cocker trotted straight past the keeper and the mallard that was lying doggo at his feet, before sniffing the air and coming back to my heel.

"Your dog's just walked straight past this duck....twice" the keeper shouted, loud enough so that all those assembled could hear (but then, after all, that's what keepers are trained to do )

Once he'd turned his back she then dived into the rushes where he'd just been with his labrador and retrieved another mallard that he'd missed. She then proceeded to quarter and find another teal on the grass that had also been missed. Of course she did all of this with no audience whatsoever.

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Ha,
that's cockers for you. Hey look at my highly trained cocker, then it shows you up. been there done it Best advice, make sure your dog is hungry, feed him in the cage, throw his favourite retrieve toy in the cage for him to go and get, don't only use the cage when you drive somewhere, let him spend some time in there. It may be that he just does not like being separate from you. He needs to come to understand that the cage is a means to an end and that there can be some fun or reward attached to it.

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Yep. My hard-as-nails Black Labrador retrieving machine Purdey once jumped out of the back of my truck carrying a bright pink stuffed flamingo that she then proceeded to deliver to every single member of the syndicate . . . . . .

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Yep. My hard-as-nails Black Labrador retrieving machine Purdey once jumped out of the back of my truck carrying a bright pink stuffed flamingo that she then proceeded to deliver to every single member of the syndicate . . . . . .

I can almost picture it! Dogs have a wonderful talent of finding the means of causing utmost embarrassment!

My first lab, Jasper, was a rescue dog. I took him beating for years and he would dive very purposefully into any sort of cover and then come out with......a stick. He'd then drop it at my feet for a quick game of fetch. Naturally I was ribbed mercilessly. At the age of nine he finally did a blind retrieve of a pheasant that our shoot captain had shot. I don't know who was the more amazed when Jasper dashed off and came back with it - him, me or the shoot captain!

Our next labrador, Tigger, would retrieve pairs of my wife's knickers from the drawer upstairs and then parade them round the dining room table during dinner parties. His party trick was to eat them and then, once nature had taken its course, deposit them down the track in the village where we walk our dogs. A few days of rain would then see them re-appear, miracle-like.

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Sorry should say he has two cages one in the back of my car. VW toureg so its a big cage nice bed in it normal a chew toy and one in my garage which he sleeps in. The garage one he walks into at night snuggles down and politely tells me to F off and turn the lights off so he can get some sleep. Literally no stress at all.

I tried getting him to jump into the front seat but I open the door and again he just rolls over lies on the floor and does his best eel impression its so bizarre and has only started happening recently, he also won't get in my old mans motor either.

Ah, that brings to mind one painfully-funny evening at a friends house. Imagine a big yellow Labrador gamboling around the busy living room with a large black dildo in his mouth, oblivious to the anguish he was causing his hysterical mistress? That night is now forever marked in my memory as the night of 'The Dance of the Black Mamba'

Sorry Rasputin, that was a shameless hijack! Sounds as though he's perhaps picking up on your frustration a wee bit? Maybe when you open the door you're already anticipating a battle and he's picked up on that? Might be worth trying leaving the car open and having his toys or a couple of treats in the cage, and let him come and go as he likes until the issue's resolved?

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Ah, that brings to mind one painfully-funny evening at a friends house. Imagine a big yellow Labrador gamboling around the busy living room with a large black dildo in his mouth, oblivious to the anguish he was causing his hysterical mistress? That night is now forever marked in my memory as the night of 'The Dance of the Black Mamba'

Sorry Rasputin, that was a shameless hijack! Sounds as though he's perhaps picking up on your frustration a wee bit? Maybe when you open the door you're already anticipating a battle and he's picked up on that? Might be worth trying leaving the car open and having his toys or a couple of treats in the cage, and let him come and go as he likes until the issue's resolved?

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I'm no trainer but it sounds to me like the dog doesn't like your driving or the end of a journey is a bad place in the dogs eyes.

My cocker loves getting in the car cause he knows it mostly ends in a run around the fields. I change clothes after work, then try and walk him and he doesn't want to go out because he doesn't like the pub much!

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I had a dog for catching pigs, Sambo was his name and he was a pig headed *******,I was given him as an adult dog to use on wild pigs here.

At the time I had an old Chrysler four door as a farm hack and pulled the back seat out and used to load the dogs in the back. We would go a few miles down the track let the dogs out to hunt and run about as I drove slowly along.Now Sambo took it upon himself one day to not want to jump the 18 inches into the car,he wanted to be lifted in.

I told him sternly to "get in the fuuccking car you cnt " and he looked at me dumbo style. Ok then I drove off for 400 yards and when he arrived at the car I did the same again ,he was puffed right out looking desperate and when I got out and opened the car door he hurtled in like a missile,never once did he pull that stunt again..lesson learned.

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I had a dog for catching pigs, Sambo was his name and he was a pig headed *******,I was given him as an adult dog to use on wild pigs here.

At the time I had an old Chrysler four door as a farm hack and pulled the back seat out and used to load the dogs in the back. We would go a few miles down the track let the dogs out to hunt and run about as I drove slowly along.Now Sambo took it upon himself one day to not want to jump the 18 inches into the car,he wanted to be lifted in.

I told him sternly to "get in the fuuccking car you cnt " and he looked at me dumbo style. Ok then I drove off for 400 yards and when he arrived at the car I did the same again ,he was puffed right out looking desperate and when I got out and opened the car door he hurtled in like a missile,never once did he pull that stunt again..lesson learned.

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I use the same system for all my dogs and it works up to now.
When they are 10/12 weeks I feed them in the dog box wich is in the barn on the concrete floor. . When they are mad to get in it : food, I put the box in the car and feed them there. After a few weeks they get in without any problems. No struggle.

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I use the same system for all my dogs and it works up to now.
When they are 10/12 weeks I feed them in the dog box wich is in the barn on the concrete floor. . When they are mad to get in it : food, I put the box in the car and feed them there. After a few weeks they get in without any problems. No struggle.

Makes sense but just wondering how u get the pups out of the car after their fed? Do u lift them all?

I'm mibee a wee bit paranoid but never let pups/young dog jump down of anything really till quite old if i can help it, i'll still be lifting out of the pick up at about 1 yr, quite happy letting them jump into it thou. Just feart they damage there hips somehow with the jolt on landing

If the feeding and levaving dog in car things not working (which they probably should)

If u can avoid the car for a few weeks/longer if possible, for some reason it's developed a fear? of the car probably something tiny thats esculated every time and now is a big thing. It could very well be ur 'vibes' as ur expecting it to happen so it happens.
Can other folk put it in the car with no problems?

Mibbee if u gave it a few weeks and go with a positive attitude it may just jump in as if there was never any bother. Esp at 5 mnths old may have just took a notion for some random reason.

Have u got any mates with dogs that it gets on well with, mibee borrow it a few times and put them both in together?